I was trying to come up with a tea in my cupboard that I could bring over to my Dad’s house for the evening and share with him to celebrate – and it finally hit me that this was 100% that appropriate choice. #dadpuns

I decided to do it up iced with some added cashew milk; it was a big hit. I mean, it’s one that I know I personally enjoy already but he also really liked it too. It’s a very sweet, nutty tea and delivers this very creamy, vibrant marzipan flavour tinged with undertones of fruit. Nothing super clear though, papaya doesn’t have a really strong/well defined flavour on its own let alone when it’s competing against other vibrant flavours. My dad’s trying really hard to cut out all sugar from his diet though following the open heart surgery he had at the start of the year, so he really appreciated the strong flavour of this tea along with the fact that in general tea doesn’t really have sugar and I used an unsweetened nut milk. This will have a TINY amount from the sprinkles in the blend, but it’s quite small.

I coldbrewed this in watermelon juice for two days because I forgot about this tbh. Since the watermelon juice is very sweet to begin with, this is one sweet cold brew but not in a cloying way. Fruity watermelon juice, with some pineapple sweetness that ends in a crisp mint note that lingers in the aftertaste making this really fresh tasting. It is quite nice actually and certainly very tasty.

So, I received a fair bit of this one from Starfevre a little while ago, and I’ve been sort of scared to drink it because this is one of those Butiki blends that I really loved when I first tried it – like, I gave it a ‘100’ rating degree of loved it. So the fear is that revisiting it, especially after such a long passing of time, I wont like it at all/it wont have any familiar and delightful tasting notes…

Gotta rip the bandaid off and just do it, though.

So, this smells amazing still as dry leaf; very pumpkin-y with some clove and nutmeg notes and then a soft earthiness. Steeped it’s basically the same, but maybe a touch more earthy smelling. Don’t worry, I made sure to give it a rinse. I’m nervous; it smells great but will it live up to past memories of it!? Well, the simple answer is… yes! This still tastes pretty bomb; lots of pumpkin, a very light touch of spice that thankfully does not detract from the pumpkin notes (nutmeg/clove), some creamy but faint vanilla notes, and then the pu’erh base. I have a feeling the overall flavourings have probably lost some punch over time – which makes me thankful that there’s actually physical pumpkin flakes in the tea itself. I also DEFINITELY have a much stronger appreciation and love of pu’erh/shou tea in general now compared to when I first had this so stronger notes of the pu’erh base are not a negative at all for me. It’s got that some delightful petrichor note to it that I first observed years ago, but also notes of undergrowth, wet wood, and sweet smoke. Not a lot of smoke, though. This was a big relief, and now I can happily revisit this tea whenever I want and revel in how delightful it is!

Something sweet and minty, both to satisfy some sweet cravings I was having but also because I thought that mint and oolong might both be things to potentially settle my stomach/all this nausea that I’ve been having, and I didn’t want to waste a nice tea if I was wrong…

This definitely leaned more towards chocolate than anything else but had a nice minty finish. It didn’t make the nausea I’m experiencing worse either and right now that’s actually a pretty big win. It was a nice cup. Nothing super fancy/over the top, but still smooth and tasty. Of course, it’s one of those ones where you can’t taste the base tea at all. Very hard to know there’s oolong in the blend given that it’s all dust; you just have to trust the packaging. I also fell asleep shortly after drinking this; don’t know if it’s because of the tea or if I was just exhausted in general but I slept for a SOLID six hours in the world’s most uncomfortable chair in my living room…

So I am really picky on chai teas..I tend to like when they have a creamy flavor cause all the spices are overwhelming to me.I love Verdant’s chai tea(I forget the name but that’s the best loose leaf chai I’ve ever had)because it’s the perfect blend of flavors. I was hoping this tea would be similar to theirs but it wasn’t. The spices are sooo strong! Took me back for a second cause I wasn’t expecting it to be that strong! If you’re really into chai tea you would definitely like this but it’s just not for me!

Chai containing spices is usually boiled in a pan and then milk added. Try experimenting with smaller amounts of the tea, boiling it and then adding milk. Soy milk is fine if you can’t take cow’s milk. The result should be warming and nice accompaniment to swallowing pills.

Super disappointed by this tea! Got it a couple years back from a swap-thank God it was only enough for one sample cause I’d feel bad trying to find a home for that tea xD I drank it all but it wasn’t good.Didnt live up to the name at all :/ mainly just had a spinach/grassy green tea taste with a really bland pudding flavor.Wasnt even a creamy or strong pudding flavor. I don’t think it’s that the tea is too old or anything cause I have teas older than when I got this one and they taste like the day I got them. I just think it’s a weak tea! Would love to find a tea that tastes like rice pudding but this one really failed :/

Okay, I’m getting around to posting this review way later than planned. I finished a bunch of tea samples from Old Ways Tea last month, and until now, I have yet to get around to posting any of them. I decided to get this one up here first simply because I have not reviewed a lapsang souchong in what feels like forever. As Wuyi smoked black teas go, this was a very good one, though I also doubt it would be the sort of tea a lot of people would want to drink regularly. That’s the thing about lapsang souchong-regardless of whether or not you enjoy it, it’s not really an everyday, all seasons kind of tea. It’s also the sort of tea that you either enjoy or you don’t, and if you have tried multiple lapsang souchongs and have yet to find one that you enjoy, there is no guarantee that you will ever find one to your liking.

Naturally, I prepared this tea gongfu style. I ended up buying a couple of small gaiwans from Old Ways Tea and decided to break one of them out for this session. After a very brief rinse, I steeped 5 grams of loose tea leaves in approximately 3 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 16 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of pine smoke, tar, char, cedar, and honey. After the rinse, I picked up emerging aromas of roasted peanut, malt, and cinnamon. The first infusion then saw the pine smoke reassert itself on the nose. In the mouth, I surprisingly found gentle notes of malt backed by subtle impressions of cinnamon, char, cedar, roasted peanut, and pine smoke. Subsequent infusions saw the nose turn citrusy and spicy. Notes of cream, minerals, brown sugar, roasted almond, and toast appeared in the mouth. I also noted the belated emergence of a slight honey flavor in the mouth as well as hints of chocolate and orange zest. The pine smoke notes were somewhat more prevalent on these infusions, though they remained much more restrained and sophisticated than the nose would have led me to expect. The final infusions offered lingering mineral, malt, and pine smoke notes backed by fleeting touches of cream, roasted nuts, brown sugar, and orange zest. A cooling menthol-like herbal impression also showed itself on the swallow.

An impressive, sophisticated, and surprisingly restrained lapsang souchong, I am willing to bet that fans of such smoked black teas would find a lot to enjoy in this one. My only real complaint was that I felt that the smokiness could have been a little more pronounced throughout, but for those who prefer a lighter smokiness in such teas, I am sure that will not be a complaint at all. Those who hate lapsang souchong will probably not be converted by this tea, but I found it to be very enjoyable. I would not want to have it every day, but it did make me hopeful that Old Ways Tea will soon bring in more smoked black teas for me to try. Judging by this one, I am certain that any future lapsang souchongs they source will be worthwhile.

Daylon, I have both the grass and honey fragrance black teas, but have yet to try either. I enjoyed both the 2016 and 2017 old tree black teas. The 2016 product was fantastic, and I recall being impressed that it had mellowed without losing any of its complexities. I also loved their 2016 wild style black tea, which was actually a purple bud black tea. The only one of their oolongs that I recall trying was the 2016 Hua Xiang Shui Xian. It was very good, but at one point, I recall thinking that, even around two years out from production, the roast could have used a little more time to settle.

I read on this website that this tea is actually better for you than the Rooibee Red Tea, is it true or? Has anyone tried it? I just bought it today and waiting for the product to arrive. The website in question – https://redteadetox396828957.wordpress.com/blog/

Astounding aroma of baked sweets and loads of other things I can’t put my finger on. Taste is smooth with hints of lavender and caramel carried by sweet sourdough that fills my cheeks. Aftertaste starts slightly soapy but transforms to sweet. Smell of the empty cup and cha hai are very sweet and complex. Smell of the wet leafs is intruiging and keeps pulling me back without telling me exactly what’s in there.

Flavors: Baked Bread, Caramel, Lavender

Preparation

Delicious buttery apple and popcorn tea! The only appropriate time to bust into my stash of this is for a really good movie – and yesterday for my brother’s birthday and Father’s day we decided to have a family movie night. A double feature! The first movie was Thor: Ragnorok, and the second was the Jumangi sequel. Really good, thematically appropriate tea and good movies are just the best combo.

Really would like the see this tea come back; it’s so light and comforting. One of my favourite apple teas from any company, and not just DT.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

I know this one was passed to me from a tea friend, but I can’t remember if it was Starfevre or Kittenna – but thank you to whichever of you sent it my way!

This was really nice; both dry aroma and steeped aroma are very sweet and fruity. I’d say that in taste, this mostly leans towards really rich, bright jammy red fruit or brandy notes but then has undertones a lot more like what’s in the company description; cocoa, malt, pecan/other generic nutty notes, and then a bit of sweet potato sweetness – without the starchiness. Just very sweet overall/in general. I greatly enjoyed it.

This is day three or four now of just kind of being in a constant state of nausea; I can’t figure out what’s causing it and I haven’t thrown up or anything but I just feel CONSTANTLY queasy, and several times I’ve just broken out into spontaneous dry heaving/gagging. I’ve taken Gravol but it’s not helping.

It’s made me a little reserved in what teas I’ve been drinking, and just how much tea I’ve drank in general over the last few days – and I fear that this tea may have been a bad choice. I’m really enjoying the triad of sweet, juicy tropical fruit notes – but it’s also SUPERFUCKINGFLORAL. Like, really intense orchid and lily notes that are coming off as perfume-like. It’s triggering that nausea really badly, and while I haven’t gagged yet I feel like I can feel it coming on pretty quickly now…

I mean, to be fair I didn’t love this one the first time when I tried it and I wasn’t feel sick/gross even though so it would make sense it would be even worse now. I’m just this giant pile of ‘blah’ right now. Why can’t I just focus on the beautiful pineapple and strawberry notes!? Too much florals though…

Set this one up to cold brew because I was craving it, but by the time it was ready to be strained I wasn’t craving it anymore so I just let it keep sitting. For nine days, because that’s how long it took for me to feel like maybe I’d be in the mood to drink it. Probably goes without saying, but after nine days of brewing it no longer tasted drinkable. Just weird sour grassiness, and far too intense perfumey florals and fruit notes. I’m not surprised; I’ve done this to myself enough times that I should know better by now – but evidently I just don’t learn from past mistakes.

Free sample which was included in the Platinum Collection I had ordered from Taylors of Harrogate.

Not a lot of information available on the sample pack, but online I can read : "Take the best Sri Lankan tea that money can buy – fresh, floral and gloriously lemony – and muddle it with the flavour of rhubarb, apple pieces and hibiscus. That’s Black Ruby: a mixed-up medley of fine winter harvest Ceylon and juicy, sweet-tart fruit infusion. Seriously refreshing.

Essentially a “black tea with rhubarb flavoured herbal blend” I´m quite impressed because for once hibiscus and rosehips don´t take over the subtleties of the black tea, but on the other hand the rhubarb isn´t very present either : as a matter of fact, I can only lightly discover it in the tea´s aroma. Overall a nice black tea, and while the flavourings don´t dominate, I still have the feeling it would´ve been better without them.

Flavors: Rhubarb

Preparation

It´s always a special moment when I get an old-fashioned letter from a good friend…and what can be better to cherish this moment than make myself a cup of tea to accompany the reading? Today I had some mountain pearls, fresh and crisp…a real summery tea, if you ask me, without needing fruit or extra sweetness. In nose very grassy, but fortunately in taste it isn´t at all so herbal.

I opened my bag up and it had that pastry aroma. It was not giving up Gong Fu, and I got an awesome bombshell of new notes like custard, lemon, pineapple, brown sugar, and rose. It’s still as floral as ever, and fairly buttery. It was starting to get a slight spice note which I have only had in a few oolongs. I am definitely upping the rating-I can see why this batch is the staff favorite.

First sip pulls you in with subtle flavor of chocolate, but more so the very distinct carob hits the palate most prominently. The mate is barely noticeable, but comes through ever so gently on the backend, but you really have to search for it.

With the name being “Double Dark Chocolate” I was hoping for a bit more dankness in chocolate flavor, but I realize how difficult a challenge that may be to execute in a tea without the use of too many added flavors.

I do have to mention, the fact that this tea is organic earns them points for sure. It could have been much easier to dump flavor into this blend and call it chocolate, but the team at Republic relied mostly on the formulation of natural ingredients to build out the flavors you’ll taste in your cup. Props to them.

Overall, it’s not bad, but it leaves me wanting for something a bit more with each sip.
If you’re a carob fanatic, this may be stocked in your tea cabinet, but the chocolate lovers may find themselves mildly disappointed.